Let there be light!

The end of an era — remembering the first night game at Wrigley Field

Aug. 8, 1988 ushered in a new era at Wrigley Field, which is celebrating its centennial. (FRANK HANES, Chicago Tribune)

In the spirit of Wrigley Field nostalgia, let us take a trip down memory lane to the days of daytime baseball — and to that era's end with the first night game at Wrigley Field.

Do you remember, fellow Chicagoans-in-the-1980s? The nostalgic praises of baseball lit only by Mother Nature; the universal acceptance of a Cubs game as a reason to play hooky from work; the political and court battles over whether the team could install lights; the revilement of then-Cubs owner Tribune Co.; the ubiquitous yellow-and-orange T-shirts vowing "No Lights!"?

And, finally, inevitably, the first night game, held on the portentous date of 8/8/88 but called on account of rain, a downpour that inspired several players to jump onto the field and turn the wet tarp into a slip 'n' slide?

Is it all still lodged in your memory, next to George Michael and INXS?

It's hard to fathom now. Night games at Wrigley Field are unremarkable; the idea of a Major League Baseball game being beholden to the sunset seems unbelievable.

But if you are of a certain era, you remember.

I was only a casual fan, though also a neighbor; at one point my husband and I lived so close to Wrigley Field that we could keep score by ear from our back porch.

And I loved those day games. They were sweetly wholesome afternoons in the sun, surrounded by men loosening their ties and women stowing their briefcases as the entire city seemed to shed its workday cares.

And they were ours — uniquely, anachronistically, but proudly. We were the last holdout, the final bastion of an increasingly odd tradition. There was pleasure and honor in it, if not pragmatism.

Charlotte Newfeld remembers.

She was the chairwoman of Citizens United for Baseball in Sunshine (CUBS), the neighborhood group that, fearing that Wrigleyville would be overwhelmed by traffic, parking woes, bars and drunken fans, led the fight against lights.

It was an important campaign, says the longtime activist, uniting the Wrigleyville community, winning neighborhood protections like residents' parking stickers and bringing the quirky battle to a remarkably wide public.

Posters and T-shirts with the distinctive "No Lights!" logo were seen all over Lakeview, and sometimes beyond.

T-shirt orders came from as far away as Japan. The posters and T-shirts were shown in several movies filmed in Chicago, including the 1991 movie "Only the Lonely," and 1986's "Nothing in Common," in which the T-shirt was worn by Tom Hanks.

Rob Lowe wore the T-shirt in "About Last Night," the 1986 movie based on David Mamet's play "Sexual Perversity in Chicago."

In fact, he wore Michael Quigley's T-shirt.

Quigley, now a U.S. congressman but then an aide to 44th Ward Ald. Bernard Hansen and a vice president of CUBS, heard that the movie was looking for a "No Lights!" T-shirt and donated his.

"I never got it back," he remarked.

He looks back at the campaign with pride. "I understand that life had to happen," he said. "But if we weren't there, they would have put in artificial turf and would have had 60 or 70 night games a year. Wrigleyville would not be what it is today. The neighborhood wouldn't have had time to grow. … We made it safer; we fought for more cops, we fought for more mass transit."

Newfeld, now steward of the Bill Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary, also sees honor and not failure in CUBS' battle.

"One of the reasons Wrigley Field has remained, and is as popular as it is, is that we made it a worldwide icon based on sunshine and green," she said. "It was that campaign on 'No Lights' that did it."

What the "No Lights" campaign could not prevent was the night of Aug. 8, 1988 — the first night game at Wrigley Field and an event I especially remember, because I was there covering it for the Tribune.

I reported from the bleachers, carefully navigating my seven-months-pregnant self among fans ecstatically celebrating their good fortune at being able to witness baseball history.

People had flown in from across the country for the game, against the Philadelphia Phillies. In honor of the night hour, some fans were wearing pajamas.

The honor of flicking the switch was given to 91-year-old Harry Grossman, who was the Cubs' oldest season ticket holder.

He led the fans in shouting, "Let there be light!" And with the brass section of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing "Also Sprach Zarathustra," there was.

There was a game, too, along with history. It was called for rain in the fourth inning. The next day, the Cubs beat the New York Mets, 6-4.

No one shrieks anymore at the sight of lights at Wrigley Field. No one says lights at Wrigley look like a mustache on the Mona Lisa, as one fan that night did.

Lights in Wrigley Field? There are lights in every major league ballpark in the country.

And time has passed. That soon-to-be-born baby who attended, sort of, that historic first night game, is 25 now.

Our family will be going to a Cubs game in August — a night game at Wrigley Field, 26 years almost to the day from the first one.

There will, of course, be lights. But our daughters may have to endure a few wheezy tales about the days when there weren't.